SERA Wants All Repeaters Toned!

I believe this is part of their decision.

 

It's short, bursty type of traffic. Not the key the repeater up for an hour at a time type of traffic. It's extremely rare to see a dispatch exchange on public saftey exceed 30 seconds. Obviously a bank robbery in progress or fire at the gasolene depot would deviate from "normal" use, but still yet....

 

I have the radio. The TSU-5 is for decode only. It will encode up a storm out of the box.

 

I'm pretty sure the TH-22 will encode also. The decode board was optional, but decode is not necessary to access the repeater. All you REQUIRE is encode.

 

Amen, brother. I hear you!

 

I've operated several repeaters over the years. Amateur, GPRS, and commercial. Believe me, in overall cost, a $60 tone encode/decode board is cheaper than the drive up to the site to install it. Store-bought repeaters already have CTCSS built-in, and modified commercial gear should also, however it IS possible it was removed or cannabalised before being decommissioned for whatever reason. Bottom line, $60 bucks will resolve the problem worse case if your situation turns out to be more than turning on a switch.

You've got until January 2006. It takes an hour or so to install the next time you do PM.

 

Well, number one, I would not be a owner or holder-of-coordination of a repeater for it. Too much headache and too many people complaining.

Tone doesn't make one bit of difference to me. I kinda like it in metro areas, because you can run tone squelch and keep out the racket from cable systems and paging transmitters.

The FCC evidentally looks to repeater frequency coordinating bodies to help formulate plans to keep repeater interference down to a minimum. And, the FCC does side with an operator who will go through the process of coordination in putting a repeater on the air, in the event of interference.

SERA does not publish their repeater listings as that is what makes folks buy the Repeater Journal. Folks, they have bills just like we do. Coordinating software is not cheap. And, last I heard (and I will welcome correction if I am wrong) they DO NOT charge for coordination.

Also, if I understand the process, the coordinator has to take the suggested frequency on the application, and look at many parameters to see if it will work. This may even involve contacting other states to see what they have that a new repeater pair would possibly interfere with. So the guy (or gal) doing the coordination has a thankless job that they do for free to help further amateur radio.

In Tennessee, there are practically no repeater pairs left for 2M. Of course there are probably pairs out there that are "paper repeaters", or machines that have left the air long ago that no one bothered to "de-coordinate". And it is quite possible that toning a repeater may open up some frequencies.

As I said at the beginning, I don't own a repeater and would not even want to. I do think a little corespondence in a kinder way may be better than a huge spread on the internet.

Just my two cents. Please, no flames to my personal email accounts...I just delete them anyway.

 

"The TSU-5 is an optional ENCODER/decoder board."
Right out of the manual - Kenwood's words, not mine. (Caps mine - for emphasis.) Just in case, I tried it - although alt/tone will show a tone frequency on the display, it cannot be changed by rotating the tuning knob, as the manual says to do if you have the board installed. Therefore it is probably just a random display. If you are encoding, according to Kenwood, then you have the no-longer-available tone board installed.

But we digress - the subject is SERA unnecessarily forcing an old standard on repeater owners who wish to keep their repeaters open to older and younger hams, and to travelers. I could afford to replace my fine multiband all-mode transciever if I wished to change brands (Kenwood does not make a successor to the rig), or buy a new one just for FM and another for packet ($180 each for the minimum) but not everyone is so fortunate. That is the problem. And it still does not address the traveler's problems.

Sorry - still a bad idea and an inappropriate assumption of authority.

 

I would not worry about this tone issue. Unless the FCC puts this requirement in Part 97, don't worry about it.
This is a backdoor attempt, by other people who want the 2m band for commercial purposes, to squeeze the hams and our frequencies.

One last observation for all of you who have "coordinating groups," STOP SENDING THEM MONEY. If you buy a "Repeater Magazine" or you participate in sending in paperwork every year to verify your repeater is on the air, STOP. Just keep the original application, that is all you need. Or better yet send them a copy every year of your original repeater coordination.
Who do you think pays for all of their, postage, fancy prop study software, laptops, and their mileage to and from hamfests???? It's YOUR money you give them!

 

Look at the manual I quoted and linked to.

You must have a different version of the radio and manual.

 

There have been a couple of comments regarding Riley Hollingsworth and/or the FCC. I wonder if they think the SERA position is legal or correct?

I have personally met Mr. Hollingsworth and I follow what is written in QST regarding his actions. He appears to be an individual of the highest integrity. Again, I wonder what Mr. Hollingsworth thinks?

Mr Hollingsworth, I eagerly await your next visit to Memphis and I am certainly looking forward to your comments on this current issue.

 

Could be.... mine is one of the earliest ones. They could easily have made a change later in the production run, as PL grew more popular on the bands.

 

Requiring tone usage on new coordinations has been SERA's policy for quite some time...why should it be made retroactive? If two carrier-operated repeaters are causing interference, that's between them and SERA.

 

AWwww..  Anything Mandated from"on high" is probably a mistake..  Is "pl"ing a machine a good idea?  Well sometimes. But it should be left to the individual repeater.  I still boil when I think of the idiots in the northeast telling the guys in Idaho and Wy and ND that they hafta drive 55 mph..   Probably should leave it be, but what good is POWER if I don't use it? And it 'twas MY idea, so it musta been a good one, right?? And you are challenging it??, "off with his head":. Ed K2LCK

 

Yep - I see that on the SERA website now - I am not able to get to the ARRL site from here in the daytime for some reason. Thanks - that will go a long ways to making this more palatable - at least users will get something out of, and it may eliminate some repeaters that amount to 'dead wood'. It will impose a hardship for some in terms of equipment costs, but I think that will eventually be overcome.

G/K0RGR